THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT: Youth, well-known for its reckless behavior and wild abandon, is also something of a shape-shifter that over the years subversively dons the mask of wrinkles and occupational fatigue in the daytime hours as self-protective camouflage but breaks again from this formality come nighttime to assume its true form — buffoonery and mating dances all over again. Witness the real thing this Saturday, November 19, at Velvet Jones (8:30pm, 423 State St.), when the nationally famed and eternally youthful garage rockers The Orwells headline an all-ages show with equally energized and irreverent S.B. rock heroes Dante Elephante. Both bands shall bring out the youth, be they legally so or only spiritually so. When the country’s steering wheel is once again put in the hands of an aged old white man — at 70 years old, the rate at which road fatalities begin to noticeably increase — we need rock ’n’ roll like this to steer us in a more cheerful direction.
The Orwells began rocking while still in high school, and unlike many who achieve a reputation at such a ripe age, they have still managed to keep intact the fire that ignited them several years beyond its bursting. A family band of sorts — frontman Mario Cuomo and guitarist Dominic Corso are cousins, bassist Grant Brinner and drummer Henry Brinner are twin brothers, and guitarist Matt O’Keefe is a friend of the gang — the band possesses that rabble-rousing spirit shared among brothers, cousins, and brothers-by-association.
If the media dooms any band that starts young by constantly reminding them and their audience of their youthful beginnings, then this columnist is guilty, what with the narrative of growing and adapting and so on. But, certainly, the band is growing, as hinted at in their upcoming album, Terrible Human Beings. “On Disgraceland and even Remember When, we were singing about being in high school and stealing dad’s booze. When you do that when you’re 22 or 23, it starts to get lame. We couldn’t do that anymore,” O’Keefe said in a phone interview.